Airfix 1/48 Hurricane Mk 1 - P2725 TM-B 504 Sqn RAF

[dewobz]

DSCN2592 by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

This model is the outcome of my build started on the RNZAF pages as Keith Park's OK-1. It transpired I didn't have the correct decals for OK-1 or time to obtain them before the Battle of Britain GB deadline last Sunday on kiwimodeller. So I went in search of another Hurricane subject, hopefully with a Kiwi connection, that I could build with my only available Code Letter decals, 24" & 26" Grey Codes. In other words, a squadron that used smaller code letters than usual. 504 "County of Nottingham" Squadron was about the only one.

DSCN2600 by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

On 7 September, 2 days after the squadron transfered from Wick to Hendon, F/O Kenneth Victor Wendel, RNZAF, was shot down, his Hurricane L1615 crashing near Faversham, and, badly burned, he died of his wounds the same day. I could not establish what L1615's code letters were.
Kenneth Victor Wendel is buried at Faversham and remembered at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Then I came across a story I had never heard before. A most extraordinary story.
On 15 Sept 1940 Flt Sergeant Raymond T. Holmes, flying P2725 TM-B, having exhausted his ammunition, deliberately rammed a Dornier DO17 intent on bombing Buckingham Palace. He cut the tail off the German bomber with his wing, causing it to crash near Victoria Station. On Wikipedia there is actually a photograph of the Dornier going down! With no control over his own aircraft, "Ray" Holmes bailed out injured and P2725 crashed near the Palace. There were no civilian injuries from either crash.

DSCN2595 by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

After landing and having a brandy, Holmes was led to the site where his Hurricane had all but disappeared into the roadway. He collected a piece of rocker cover as a trophy or evidence.
Ray Holmes was hailed a war hero by the press. He went on to become a flight instructor and claimed one more kill while with the Murmansk Hurricanes on the Eastern Front. As a Flt/Lieutenant at the end of the war he was the Kings messenger to Winston Churchill and afterwards returned to journalism. He published his autobiography in 1989.

DSCN2597 by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

DSCN2602 by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

The story doesn't end there though. In 2004, the wreckage of Holmes' Hurricane was discovered and successfully excavated from the streets of London, and this was featured on the National Geographic Channel documentary, "The Search for the Lost Fighter Plane". 89 year old Ray Holmes was presented with the remains of the Hurricane's control column, the 'trigger' still stuck in the firing position!
Ray Holmes died on 27 June 2005, aged 90, following a two-year battle with cancer.
Sources - Wikipedia and Cranston Art Prints
15 September, the day of Raymond T Holmes extraordinary feat of courage, is considered the 'turning point' and remembered as 'Battle of Britain Day'. It seems fitting that the aircraft 'hero' of that day should be a Hawker Hurricane.

DSCN2601 by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

Cheers
Wally.
PS - A Keith Park Hurricane build from me will follow soon ...

[baz62]

Nov 5, 2015 22:54:09 GMT 12 dewobz said:

On Wikipedia there is actually a photograph of the Dornier going down! With no control over his own aircraft, "Ray" Holmes bailed out injured and P2725 crashed near the Palace.

I recall seeing the documentary about this and if I recall correctly there was a photo of "Ray" coming down in his papachute.

[johnnyfalcon]

[/quote] "Ray" coming down in his papachute.[/quote]

...as opposed to his mamachute...

[dewobz]

Yes, I suppose people had their Brownie Cameras out snapping pictures of the air battles high above them.
I wonder why Ray Holmes didn't get a VC?
I guess not everyone can have one, but his courage does seem rather extraordinary.

[flyjoe180]

Great build Wally. Nice to have the background to your build. I recall that Hurricane wreckage being exhumed.